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Randy Oliver's Request

Randy Oliver is requesting that Treatment Free Beekeepers monitor varroa mite levels in their hives monthly, taking the samples in his prescribed manner. Maybe some of you would like to participate. Jeanette has Posted the link below.

Re: Randy Oliver's Request

I like the idea but and will look into contacting him for starting collections in the spring. I don't do the sticky board thing mainly because I don't have a screened bottom board. I did pull drone larva this year though.

Thanks for bringing this to attention Mark.

Treatment Free Beekeepers – Help Collect Data

From Randy Oliver

Hi all treatment free beekeepers. How about helping me collect data on the actual mite levels in your hives over the course of the year?

Re: Randy Oliver's Request

Mark, in fairness to Randy, you ought to go back and read his page again. He does not ask for a donation to cover his time reading emails...he asks for a donation to answer beekeeping questions. I'm not Randy's biggest fan, but his wording and intent on this matter is clear to anyone that takes the time to actually read what he wrote. Those that do not take the time to read should not be commenting on what they decided not to read.http://scientificbeekeeping.com/contact-me/

Contact Me

I appreciate when readers notify me of glitches or typos on this site, or suggested improvements. I also appreciate discussion with experienced beekeepers and researchers on fine points, and will ask your permission to add comments which I feel add to the site.

Unfortunately, I do not have the time to answer basic beginning beekeeper questions, as I am not funded by any agency. If email me with questions about beekeeping, please have the courtesy to donate to this site to cover my time. Thank you!

Re: Randy Oliver's Request

Re: Randy Oliver's Request

First of all, many (if not most) treatment free beekeepers are treatment free, at least in part, "to help the bees". A request to such beekeepers to do monthly alcohol washes will be ignored by many (most?), simply because they don't want to kill 200 young adult bees from each hive each month....i certainly don't...and if I did, I'm perfectly capable of producing my own graph.

Secondly, it is hard to put treatment free beekeepers in a group. There is no consensus on what treatment free means, and Randy doesn't seem to have specified what he is specifically interested in ...except bees from beekeepers that claim to be treatment free. Heck, Randy has claimed that his own small cell treatment free bees survived because of the off gassing of HSC frames. If he really believes that, then a TF beekeeper with HSC in the hive would in fact, be using a chemical treatment in the hive....not treatment free....not helpful in a discussion or analysis of treatment free bees.

It's also worth noting (if you read Randy's report on his HSC experiment), that he has not done mite counts on his own small cell hives (at least as of the most recent update on his site).

deknow (who finds it offensively "unscientific" to delete one's own words in a public discussion)

Re: Randy Oliver's Request

Heck, Randy has claimed that his own small cell treatment free bees survived because of the off gassing of HSC frames.

He didn't have ANY statistical number of surviving hives from that study.

"Unfortunately, all but one of the control colonies perished at the onset of cold weather, and most of the HSC colonies followed suit in February."

"I had planned to continue with this trial through the next season, but the untimely collapse of the colonies unfortunately prevented further data collection."

He did recycle the HSC frames in with the rest of his colonies, and that is the subject of his 2010 update, but as it relates to the study, most perished for "unrelated reasons." I also do not believe that he attributed any "success" from off gassing. He merely suggested that it was one possibility.

Re: Randy Oliver's Request

Originally Posted by Michael Bush

I try to raise bees. I don't like killing them, especially on purpose...

I don't like killing bees either. Until there is a way of accurately assessing Varroa in a hive without killing bees, there isn't a lot of choice if treatment free beekeepers decide to participate in Randy's study. Now beekeepers are an independent lot, and there are some who will proudly say "study? I don't need no stinkin' study. My bees do ok"; my concern, and the reason I will be gathering data for the study, is that all too often there are only anecdotal reports of treatment free beekeeping results, causing folks looking for scientific information to equate Treatment Free Beekeepers with, I don't know, telephone callers to late night talk radio?

I see Randy's request as an opportunity for treatment free beekeeping to get honestly measured, and just maybe, go mainstream.

Re: Randy Oliver's Request

I haven't had a problem with Varroa for a decade now. Mites aren't killing my bees. Of course we mind if our bees are dying. That doesn't mean that the best course of action is to do something even if it's wrong.

In reality our actions often have the opposite effect of what we expect. When people decided to poison the prairie dogs to get less prairie dogs, the results were quite the opposite. They poisoned some prairie dogs, to be sure, but the end result was less of all of their predators (black footed ferrets, burrowing owls, rattle snakes, hawks, eagles, coyotes...) resulting in a population explosion of prairie dogs. Many things, including treating for mites, are like this in that the result is not what you thought you were doing directly. The secondary effects come back to haunt you.